MARTHA has just received some new bronze hardware!
But before we talk about the new, we need little back ground info.
Last year while sailing the California Coast, one of our sailors, John Farrell, noticed a weighted bean bag hanging from the shifter and asked why was such a thing hanging there?
I explained about how the Morse/Teleflex control is constructed with dissimilar metals, bronze, aluminum, spring steel and such and that these metals corrode in the salt environment and the spring steel friction washer disintegrates and then there is no throttle detent and the engine RPMs back off. To correct for it I hang a weighted bag to keep the RPMs where we want them.
After discussions regarding marine grade equipment I mentioned a company called Kobelt. They are a Canadian company and they make ‘Honest to God Marine Grade Components’ and as soon as we can afford we are going to install a Kobelt throttle/ shifter assembly.
Well, some time after John left the vessel in SanDiego we received from John a donation; in his letter he thanked us for such a wonderful adventure and told us the check was for the new Kobelt Shifter.
So John, here it is, and it’s a great piece of engineering and art, works great and Kobelt is a wonderful company to work with!
Thank You John. MARTHA loves the new Throttle/ Shifter.
Now, the other bronze part that MARTHA has just received is a new Anchor roller, designed and built by Port Townsend Foundry.
And another background story.
No one knows when the previous anchor roller was installed, maybe the 1950s. MARTHA anchors with chain but the roller was for rode and the roller sheave was quite worn.
It lasted a long time but honestly was on the edge. We were sailing off the hook, Bechers Bay, Santa Rosa Island, the wind was blowing 25 with higher gusts veering and ranging from port to starboard bow and being very difficult. One gust caught us hard on the starboard bow and pushed us way off to port; being at short scope and the anchor dug in hard, when the chain came up tight, the impact bent the anchor roller assembly.
We made repairs and kept a very watchful eye on it the rest of the journey. Once back home we had Pete Langley and the Port Townsend Foundry crew design and build a new Roller System.
Talk about engineering and art, this roller assembly from start to finish is a thing of beauty.
Thank you Port Townsend Foundry Crew for such great work!
We will be putting together more info about this process soon!
